Major figures involved in the Balkan wars

Former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic
Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plvsic
Vojislav Seselj
Alija Izetbegovic
Franjo Tudjman

BELGRADE • The United Nations court dealing with crimes committed during the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia hands down its penultimate ruling on Wednesday, having delivered 83 convictions. Here is a rundown of the fate of the key players in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

CHARGED: MILOSEVIC, SERBIAN PRESIDENT

Slobodan Milosevic was accused of fuelling ethnic conflict and mass murder in the former Yugoslavia during his 13 years of iron rule, defying international sanctions and Nato bombs. He died in his cell in 2006 aged 64 while awaiting a verdict on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

GUILTY: KARADZIC, BOSNIAN SERB LEADER

Radovan Karadzic was found guilty last year of genocide and nine other charges, including extermination, deportations and hostage-taking. He was sentenced to 40 years in jail. The genocide conviction arose from the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered.

GUILTY: PLAVSIC, BOSNIAN SERB PRESIDENT

Vice-president of the Serbs' self-declared Republika Srpska during the Bosnian war, Biljana Plavsic - the only woman to be convicted by the tribunal - pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity and was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2003. She was found to have played a leading role in a campaign of persecution against Croats and Muslims. Now 87, she was granted release in 2009.

ACQUITTED: SESELJ, RADICAL SERB

A Milosevic ally, Vojislav Seselj was accused of being behind the murder of many Croats, Muslims and other non-Serbs, as well as the forced deportation of "tens of thousands". The court acquitted the hardline Serbian Radical Party leader on all charges, saying he did not have "hierarchical" responsibility for his paramilitary forces after they came under Serbian army control. Now aged 63, the Serbian Radical Party leader is a Member of Parliament.

NOT INDICTED: IZETBEGOVIC, BOSNIAN PRESIDENT

Bosnia's first president, Alija Izetbegovic, was a Muslim who led the country to independence, a move that was followed by the bloody 1992 to 1995 war between Muslims, Serbs and Croats. After his death in 2000, the court said it had been investigating Serb allegations that he committed war crimes, but no charges were ever brought.

ESCAPED CHARGES: TUDJMAN, CROATIAN PRESIDENT

Franjo Tudjman took the Croatian republic out of the Yugoslav federation. The subsequent independence war left about 20,000 people dead. After he died in 1999, aged 77, the court said he would have been indicted for war crimes had he lived.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 20, 2017, with the headline Major figures involved in the Balkan wars. Subscribe